TAMBARAM: During an interaction with officials of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board and Pallavaram Municipality, activists aired their grievances about the ongoing underground sewerage project.

Road restoration works, delay in the construction of lift stations, sub-pumping and main pumping stations, disparities in the thickness of sewer lines laid, construction quality of manholes and escalated cost of the project were some of the prime concerns expressed. Residents and elected representatives had for long been calling for regular interactions with Metrowater officials at council meetings. They had also asked for the setting up of a grievance cell so that problems and shortcomings of the project could be raised there.

Residents can participate

Last week, Metrowater announced at a meeting it had with officials of the local body,held every Friday, residents too could take part.

Following this, Metrowater engineers took note of some of their grievances on Friday and Saturday. Activists, while expressing happiness that Metrowater was executing the project, sought to know why such an interaction was not organised earlier.

S. Chandrashekar, president of the Federation of Civic and Welfare Associations of Pallavaram Municipality wanted to know what plans the authorities had drawn up to implement the project in uncovered areas and whether the present outlay of the plan covered these places. He pointed out that in many places, road restoration works were not being done properly and asked the Metrowater officials to look into it.

V. Santhanam, president of Chromepet New Colony Residents Welfare Society, apprehended that the quality of pipes and its diameters were not capable of handling large volumes of sewage. Manholes were built very fast and the dug up roads restored without proper curing and consolidation, he said.

Metrowater officials, however, clarified that no compromise was being made on quality and that all works were being carried out according to specifications.

They dispelled fears that the thickness and size of pipelines were not up to the mark. The internal diameter of the pipelines varied from 100 mm (for house service connections) to 200 mm and 400 mm (for street lines) and 800 mm (for main lines).

Engineers said that almost one-third of the project work, which includes laying of 186 km of pipelines, construction of two lift stations and two sub-pumping stations and a main pumping station, was over. Officials were hopeful of overcoming hindrances to the construction of some of the facilities and commencing work on them soon.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail